Archive for the ‘Labour’ Category

So, our reverse-Midas-touch Prime Minister does it again. Given the task of writing a letter of condolence to a grieving mother, he fluffs it. And the Sun is after him.

There are lots of themes to this story. There is the picture of a Prime Minister at No 10 apparently writing letters in the dead of night that nobody is even allowed to check. There is the story of the bereaved mother, understandably outraged by what she sees as the lack of respect shown to her son both in life and in death.

But what stands out to me is the unpleasant taste in the mouth left by the Sun’s campaign to use a parent’s grief, the felt-tip scrawlings of a nearly blind man and its own proprietorial blend of outrage and sanctimoniousness to score political points against Labour.

Listening to Radio 5 Live this lunchtime, and eavesdropping on a bit of Sky News, I’m left with them impression I’m not the only one left feeling uncomfortable by the way Brown is being hounded on this issue. Enemies of Labour had better be careful that this doesn’t mark the start of a change in public attitude towards our wounded PM.